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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

MTT has Prepared Four Subscription Concerts for Next Month

For next month Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) has prepared four separate subscription concerts, two with overlapping content, for his performances with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS).

March will come in like a lion with an all-Russian program following the conventional overture-concerto-symphony organization. However, the overture will actually be a dance suite that will be receiving its first SFS performances. The piece is by a Russian composer whose catalog covers almost the entirety of the first half of the twentieth century, Mikhail Gnessin. MTT has selected a piece that is one of two distinct pieces composed in 1926 to be cataloged as Opus 41, Evreiskiy orkestr na balu u Gorodnichevo (the Jewish orchestra at the Ball of Nothingtown). Gautier Capuçon will be the soloist for Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 107 (first) cello concerto in E-flat major. The program will then conclude with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 74 (“Pathétique”) symphony in B minor.

This concert will be given four performances, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4, and at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 2. There will be an Inside Music talk given by Peter Grunberg that will begin one hour prior to each concert. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $15 to $162. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The event page also has an embedded sound file of KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the Tchaikovsky symphony and a sound clip of previous SFS performances of that symphony. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Following two weeks of visiting conductors, MTT will return to the Davies podium to present two different programs in a single week, both of which emphasize the twentieth century. The first of these will present the latest composition by Robin Holloway, written on a commission shared by SFS and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The work is a concertante composition with the tuba as the solo instrument, Holloway’s Opus 121 tone poem “Europa and the Bull.” The tuba solo will be taken by SFS Tuba Jeffrey Anderson. Instrumental diversity will also be featured during the second half of the program with a performance of Béla Bartók’s “Concerto for Orchestra.” To begin this program, MTT will revisit the orchestra version of John Cage’s score for the ballet “The Seasons.” This time the performance will be enhanced with visualizations conceived by MTT and realized with projections created by video artist Clyde Scott and stage lighting designed by Luke Kritzeck.

This concert will be given two performances, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 23, and at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 24. There will be an Inside Music talk given by Peter Grunberg that will begin one hour prior to each concert. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $38 to $158. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The event page also has an embedded sound file of KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the Bartók concerto and a sound clip of previous SFS performances of that composition. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The remainder of the week will see the return of violinist Nicola Benedetti. She will perform as soloist in Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G major. This will replace the Holloway tone poem, and the rest of the program will include the Cage and Bartók compositions.

This concert will also be given two performances, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 26. Peter Grunberg will again give the Inside Music talk beginning one hour prior to each concert. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $35 to $162. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The event page also has an embedded sound file of KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the Bruch concerto and sound clips of previous SFS performances of both the Bruch and Bartók concertos. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

MTT has prepared a program consisting entirely of the music of Gustav Mahler for the following week. Both of his selections will be familiar to those who follow his SFS performances regularly. He will begin with the opening Adagio movement from Gustav Mahler’s unfinished tenth symphony. This will be followed by that composers very first symphony in D major.

This concert will also be given four performances, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 2. John Palmer will give the Inside Music talk beginning one hour prior to each concert. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $15 to $162. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Rik Malone’s podcast about the Mahler first will soon be posted to the Program Note Podcasts Web page, and sound clips of previous SFS performances of that symphony have been embedded on the event page. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.